Little Things That Irk You VI: The Rage Awakens

[Asura]

To be fair Darwock, I think part of the Japanese apathy over gift-giving comes from that they do it a lot more than we do. What's the term for the mandatory gifts you have to buy your office when you come back from a trip? Began with an "o" I'm sure.

[Darwock]

Omiyage. But that's usually referring to a tray of biscuits to be shared out. And every transport-hub in the country sells boxes of stuff for exactly that purpose, so no thought is required. I wouldn't class it as the same thing as a birthday.

[kryss]

Looking back, we had one main present, perhaps one or two smaller ones to go with it, then smaller stocking stuffers to open as well. The stuffers were like funny books or puzzles.

In those days getting something as expensive as an iPad would have been unheard of. 100quid bike from Toys'r'us was the most expensive thing I got as a child. In Japan I used to snap up cheap DS and Wii games to wrap for myself for christmas. It was nice to have something to open.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Its 5.30am, its dark, its cold & its pissing it down & I have to get soaked walking to work right now

[Soundwave]

And on this topic, can I get some reassurance that it's not weird to have loads of presents to open? Every year my wife makes me feel weird and guilty like we are doing something abnormal when I try to stock our tree up the way I remember from my childhood.

Of course it isn't

We will have a small mountain under our tree tomorrow morning.

We did have them there yesterday after we'd wrapped everything but our highly excitable daughter kept thinking it meant Santa had been so kept trying to unwrap everything so had to say "Santa was coming to pick them up from us & will bring them back on Christmas day" which she was happy with & this morning they were gone so she got all excited again thinking he was getting everything ready for her.

Was quite cute to be honest.

But yeah tons of presents is fine & positively encouraged if I'm honest lol

Neil

[Darwock]

I guess every family has their own ways... for us it was the family presents got placed under the tree whenever they were delivered to our house (in the case of granny/grandpa etc) or wrapped, and overnight on Xmas Eve Santa would leave one mysterious new present in the middle of the room next to a filled stocking (usually the thing we really wanted and had written to ask for).

Now that I am on the providing end I had to think twice, because I'm sure the rule for us was that best presents got opened last (i.e ones from mum and dad) but Santa's present always got opened first, which seems kind of anticlimactic when I think about it.

My family is a bit stingy to be honest, my brother never sends gifts for my daughter and Miki's family is obviously Japanese so they don't really exchange gifts at Christmas at all (but her mother plays along which I am very grateful for) so I overcompensate by getting her more than one thing to open from us parents.

[Decider-VT]

In those days getting something as expensive as an iPad would have been unheard of. 100quid bike from Toys'r'us was the most expensive thing I got as a child. In Japan I used to snap up cheap DS and Wii games to wrap for myself for christmas. It was nice to have something to open.

People seem to spend absolute fortunes these days. My wife and I stick to budgets of ?100 each every year but then I see threads on places like NeoGAF, where someone will get a PS4, Xbox One, iPad Pro and a new phone all at once and they'll shrug it off as if it's all perfectly normal. Reporting it as their "haul" is also a rather disgusting way of describing it!

[fuse]

My amp has just clapped out on Christmas Eve. Think it's too late to get a letter in to Santa's workshop?

[charlesr]

Turn it upside down and hit it. Worked for my Xbox One. Surely must work for all devices.

Bummer.

[briareos_kerensky]

If try to activate cruise control on my car I got a computer error.

Computer error on a car.

And cruise control is gone. Does my car expect me to actually pay attention to how fast am I going?!



(sarcasm of course)

[kryss]

I think it's nice for kids to unwrap lots on Christmas day. Mum always told us that she had to pay Father Christmas for what he delivered to keep our expectations in check. It was always the anticipation and surprise that I enjoyed more than the gifts, and many times the smaller gifts were the best!

My amp has just clapped out on Christmas Eve. Think it's too late to get a letter in to Santa's workshop?

Don't forget to ask for a new PS4, Xbox1 and iPad, then post pictures of your "haul" on NeoGaf.

[Asura]

Looking back, we had one main present, perhaps one or two smaller ones to go with it, then smaller stocking stuffers to open as well. The stuffers were like funny books or puzzles.

In those days getting something as expensive as an iPad would have been unheard of. 100quid bike from Toys'r'us was the most expensive thing I got as a child.

Thinking back, we predominantly got around ?100 for non-practical stuff (i.e. outside of socks etc.). I only feel guilty about one year, when I got my Saturn on the first Christmas it was available, along with a TV for my room to use it with (with Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA and a second pad). Collectively I think it was around ?400, and that's in 1995 money.

That being said, it was the only Christmas I got so much, and I suspect my parents picked that one year to be a "special" Christmas year I would remember (whereas the others tend to blur together).

[kryss]

Mine was a GameBoy with Tetris AND Super Mario Land. Mum got most of our stuff from Burlington or Great Universal catalogues, I imagine she's almost done paying off Christmas 1991...

[Dogg Thang]

Got a mail from Amazon. It's not Christmas week. No, it's Boxing Day Deals Week.

[teddymeow]

While we're on the subject of how much people spend on Christmas.

Mum does porn to buy child massive Christmas haul

It's not what she did in order to earn money to buy presents for her son more the fact that she's now sold her story to get even more money.